The CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute analyzed the Schedule C funding over the past six years and how it related to food pantries, prepared foods, food education, and other food-related parameters more specifically food (for reference, The New York City Council Discretionary funding, also known as Schedule C funding, are funds provided to non profit organizations). The Schedule C funds include “food initiatives'' which include food as the main focus. These subcategories are as following: food pantries, where food is provided directly to those in need. Food access includes how affordable and accessible nutritious food is for individuals and families. Those who lack access to healthier foods because of prices, transportation and distance from grocery stores may have poorer diets and increased food insecurity. Nutrition education can be viewed as learning opportunities to encourage healthy eating and beneficial behaviors to improve wellbeing. For example, it can empower children to choose healthier food and drinks when given the choice.
The New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) also looked at “food adjacent initiatives'' which included funds from Schedule C that included food in some capacity.Though not the main focus, these initiatives, such as gardening, community fitness classes and recreational programming/food services found at senior centers, are nonetheless important.
The analysis discovered that funding allocations to food initiatives and food adjacent initiatives ranged from $25.6 to $52 million. From 2021 to 2022, funding for food initiatives increased from $27.7 million to $25 million but decreased to $10 million in 2023. The increase seen from 2021-2022 emerged from the rise in food insecurity as a result of the COVID pandemic.
The “food initiatives”category included food pantries, and access to food, benefits, and nutrition education. At Tisch, we believe these components are critical aspects in food policy and funding as they are the foundation to healthy eating and living.Both understanding which foods are health promoting and having access to these foods are the first steps in improving metrics of health.
Interestingly, the analysis also reveals how in 2019, there was an initiative for an increase in kosher and halal food at a lunch pilot, but this pilot was only funded for a single year and did not yield any data. Given the variety of dietary restrictions across NYC schools, we believe this pilot, if fully implemented out, would allow countless New Yorkers who follow kosher and halal diets to participate in school meals.
The analysis revealed Food Pantries was the main initiative and was given the most funding. Pantries saw a stark increase in funding from 2021 to 2022 (again, this underscores the threat of food insecurity highlighted by the COVID pandemic). Funding for food pantries started at $6.6 million in 2020, rose to $24.9 million in 2021, dropped to $21.2 million in 2022, continued to drastically decrease to $7.3million as seen in 2023. While the decrease in funding is likely caused by the decreased threat of the pandemic, food insecurity still remains a significant issue in NYC. Without a doubt, food pantries could expand their reach and impact from additional funding and support. While the effects of these budget cuts are a bit nebulous, the lack of funding certainly has negative implications for those living with various levels of food insecurity and can prevent them from receiving resources to access food for themselves and their families.
The analysis also found that the increase of funding for food pantries seen in 2021 and 2022 came from the increased amount of the 10 largest awards provided each year. In previous years, these funds equaled around $1.8 million but rose to $18.6 million in 2021 before dropping slightly to $13.4 million in 2022.
In previous years, food initiatives made up to 1-2% of all funding. However, in 2021 this increased up to 6% and decreased to 4% in 2022, underscoring the need that still remained in NYC communities.
We at the Tisch Food Center believe that more funding for food initiatives such as food pantries, food access, access to healthy food and nutrition education could have a profound impact on communities in New York. We urge the city council to be proactive in working on providing more funding to help increase food accessibility.